Interview with author Tia Silverthorne Bach

Chasing Memories is my first YA book and my first solo one. My first book, the award-winning Depression Cookies, was a coming-of-age story co-written with my mother. My teenager inspired me to write Chasing Memories. She’s an avid fantasy/paranormal reader and passed many of her favorite books onto me, hooking me on the genre as well.

I’ve always loved writing young adult characters, because they have one foot in childhood innocence while desperately wanting to jump with both feet into an adult world. But, I also wanted to explore the idea of why many teenagers love the paranormal/fantasy genre.

What books have most influenced your life most?

Growing up, my nose was always in a book. My mom is a published poet and instilled a love of reading in me early on. She passed down her favorites from Victoria Holt to Nancy Drew novels. Then, I found Judy Blume. Her books were food for the soul, especially to a teenager who moved every 2-3 years. What I desire most in a book are characters that offer a new perspective on life, that find their way into my heart. Books can be great teachers.

Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?

Where do I start? I take great pride in finding value in most any book, there’s a lesson to be learned even if I didn’t particularly care for it. I tend to have such a stack of books next to my bed waiting to be read that I’m not always up on the newest authors.

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?

From a lifelong love of the written word. My mother and grandmother were avid readers, filling shelf after shelf with books, and my dad was a vocabulary hound. If I ever went to him as a child and asked what a word meant, he would tell me to look it up in the dictionary and memorize the word above it and below it. Plus, our family had countless Scrabble tournaments. I am captivated by how much feeling a simple word can possess when in the right person’s hands.

Who designed the covers?

Since my first novel’s release in late 2010, I have absorbed as much as I could from other writers. The online writing community is amazing. Along the way I met the wonderful, talented Jo Michaels of Indie Books Gone Wild. She edited the book and designed the cover. Because she had read the story, she had an intimate understanding of my vision for the cover. She’s amazing.

Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

My love of writing was born from a longtime fascination with books. I am first a reader, then a writer. Few things bring me greater pleasure than the books that bring adventure and new friends into my life.

About Chasing Memories

There isn’t another way; not now. The others are coming. I can’t let them have you…Seventeen-year-old Reagan has a problem: She can’t remember what happened the night her brother was taken. Now, the dreams haunting her from the incident are becoming more intense by the day. All the while, the lines between what’s real and what’s a product of her paranormal-obsessed mind are becoming blurred.Is she losing her mind or has she just stepped into a world she thought only existed in books?Caught in a web of worried parents, competing boys, Wiccan relatives, protective amulets, and psychiatrist babble, Reagan must determine the truth before it’s too late.Paperbacks are available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Currently, the eBook is exclusively available through Kindle. Smashwords and Nook versions are coming soon.

About the author Tia Silverthorne Bach is an avid reader, sometimes runner, involved wife and mother, and rabid grammar hound in addition to being a multi-genre writer. Her three daughters were born in Chicago, San Diego, and Baltimore; and she feels fortunate to have called many places home. She’s the award-winning co-author of Depression Cookies, a coming of age story written with her mother. Tia’s office is wherever her laptop takes her and any place that’s conducive to allowing a wild imagination like hers to flourish.

You can find more information on her blog, Twitter, Facebook, and GoodReads.